Don't Work For Your Boss, Work For Your Company

It’s no secret that businesses today are a bit obsessed with hierarchy. You probably go to work every day and report to someone, who in turn reports to another person...and so it goes up the hierarchical ladder. This traditional structure has established the idea that we’re all just “doing time,” attempting to please our bosses until it’s our turn at the top.

But this standard view of work is creating a huge disconnect between companies and their employees. In a hierarchal structure, you can wind up losing sight of your company’s goals and visions. You may end up feeling like a worker bee with little autonomy, and your passion for what you do, as well as the work you turn out, can suffer as a result. This is a lose-lose situation for both you and your company.

At my companies Ciplex and Open Me, we’ve thrown out hierarchical workplace structure to ensure our employees aren’t getting stuck working under their managers. Instead, we’ve developed a flat team philosophy that allows everyone to focus on achieving organizational goals autonomously. This translates to a slew of happier, passionate, engaged, hardworking employees that are dedicated to the overall success.

Are you ready to stop working for your boss to do a favor for both yourself and your company in the long run? Here are a few tips to get you started:

1. Look past your boss. Break away from the idea of simply accomplishing things for your boss. They’re merely a rung in the ladder of your company. Realign your focus to establish your drive and engagement on turning out exceptional work that helps further your company. For instance, you may have to work late to tie up the loose ends on a project. Rather than putting in that extra time to please your manager, think of it as going the extra mile for your company’s goals and your personal professional development, which will benefit you in the long run.

2. Key into company goals. When was the last time you visited your company’s mission statement, vision, or really considered the essential organizational goals? As an employee of your company, you’re a valuable piece of a puzzle, so it’s worth revisiting what you’re really using your passion, drive, and technical skills to accomplish. If it helps, create a list of the positive impact your company has on society, customers, clients or stakeholders, and how your individual role contributes.

3. Do your part. Once you’ve got your company’s goals in sight, you can more easily see how your work affects the organization as a whole. But what else can you be doing to further the company vision? Try coming up with ways to further your personal achievement as it aligns with organizational goals.

For example, while acquiring new clients for your company may not be directly in line with what you do on a daily basis, there may still be a way you can contribute. This could mean developing processes to make pitching run smoother or even coming up with a more functional lead generation tool on your company’s website.

4. Speak up. If you’re feeling out of touch with greater goals, do yourself a favor and voice your concerns. Reach out to those around you, not just your direct manager or boss, and see how you can lend a hand to accomplish new tasks or gain a better understanding of how each task you do contributes to the larger company goals.

Suggest your company utilizes a system to align everyone with the greater goals. Clear Company is one example of a talent management platform helping businesses keep track of objectives by offering greater transparency. Everyone within your organization can ‘see’ how their tasks are contributing to the big picture.

5. Go the extra mile for your company. Use your special interests to make your company better from the inside out. Maybe you’re a project manager but also the resident productivity wiz. Try revving up company culture to boost productivity -- donate a ping pong table or create a weekly office bake-off. Culture-boosting activities aren’t just a great addition to the company blog or Twitter feed, they’re also great for inspiring a more enthusiastic and motivated workplace.

6. Look to the future. It’s easy to get caught up in the little day-to-day tasks and miss the larger picture. Take a look at where your company is headed and do your part to make sure it gets there. Get your fellow coworkers on board to do the same. At the end of the day, you’re working for larger goals and your contribution is valuable, even if it can be hard to see when doing minute tasks.

It’s amazing what working for your company, rather than your boss, can do for your passion and drive. Remember, you’re a valuable part of achieving organizational goals -- all it takes is a change of mindset to harness a better workplace attitude.

Do you think looking past your boss and working for your company comes with a few challenges?

About Ilya Pozin:

Founder of Open Me and Ciplex. Columnist for Inc, Forbes & LinkedIn. Gadget lover, investor, mentor, husband, father, and '30 Under 30' entrepreneur. Follow Ilya below to stay up-to-date with his articles and updates!